Ghosts of the Past
by demonlrd66
Summary: PART TWO of Rebels Without a Cause. Koenma sends the guys into a tournament to beat his old rival's team. But what about the two girl's teams? DISCONTINUED
1. Another Tournament

Here's part two of Rebels Without a Cause. I got three Yu Yu Hakusho manga for Christmas! Yay!

I do not own the Eminem song in this story, neither do I own Eminem. I wish I did.

Guide

_Singing_

**LOCATION**

**

* * *

PART TWO**

Chapter 1

The boys sat impatiently in Koenma's office waiting for him to show up.

"That's just like him." Yusuke muttered. "To call us for an emergency and then be late."

Koenma then walked into the office with a tall, brown haired, dog demon following behind him. The demon was very muscular and had dark brown dog ears protruding from the top of his head, at his side was a large, gray wolf.

"You four are going to enter another tournament." Koenma announced.

"What! I'm tired of these stupid tournaments!" Yusuke yelled. "Can't these stupid demons come up with anything creative for a change? It's always a huge castle with creepy guards or a tournament!"

"This isn't because of a demon." Koenma explained. "My old rival is entering a team in the tournament and I told him my team could beat anyone he threw at them. Since you're all I have, you're entering."

"Who's he then?" Kuwabara asked, nodding at the dog-demon.

"This is Koga. He is your fifth member."

Koga nodded his head. "This is Kana, she will be our extra." Koga explained, nodding at the wolf.

"A wolf? A wolf is our extra!" Yusuke yelled.

The wolf quickly took the form of a beautiful, gray haired woman who grabbed Yusuke by the throat and held up against the wall, his feet dangling inches above the floor.

"Kana." Koga scolded.

"I'm sorry brother." Kana apologized, releasing Yusuke. "I never had much patience with humans."

Koga placed a hand on her arm. "I know."

"When and where do you need us?" Kurama asked.

**AT THE TOURNAMENT LOCATION**

"Did you hear?" a demon asked the person next to him. "They say there're two teams of girls here!"

Kurama looked at the demon standing beside him. "Two teams of girls?" he asked.

"Yeah, the one doesn't look like much, but the other?" he whistled. "Their leader's a fiery red head. Beautiful as a flower, deadly as a snake."

"What about the rest of the team?"

"Didn't hear much about them, but they're five of them, all demons for sure."

"Heard that their leader's a dragon rider." a demon on Kurama's other side whispered.

"This is gonna be good." Another demon whispered. "I hear that dragon riders are as powerful as their dragons, and I've yet to see a weak dragon in the races."

"Yeah, and they postponed the races 'til next week 'cause of the tournament."

"Well that was awful nice of them."

"Kurama!" A voice yelled. "Stop talking and get over here!"

"Excuse me." Kurama whispered to the three demons and walked off to join Yusuke and the others.

"We got keys to our room, here's yours." Yusuke handed him a key. "Let's go."

**IN THE HOTEL**

The boys walked up the stairs and had begun trekking down the hall when Kuwabara stopped in front of a door.

"I've heard that song before." He whispered before knocking on the door. (Oh, shit, that rhymed!)

**IN THE ROOM**

Three girls were sitting in the hotel room. Ryu was watching a movie on T.V. while Kitten and Kina were stocking the kitchen with food. The dragon-demon was watching a recording of Risty, Rogue, and Dante's concert at the Summer Festival.

"What cha watchin'?" Kitten asked, leaning over the back of the sofa.

"A Rebels Without a Cause concert." she answered.

"I'm still uncertain as to how they came up with that name." Kina commented, sitting next to Ryu.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"I'm not sure why Risty even got that stupid tattoo." Kitten commented. "When she gets old it'll get all wrinkly and ugly."

"Risty's kind do not get old and 'wrinkly'." Kina told her. "At least, not until the rest of us are long dead."

Another knock at the door.

"Ryu answer the damn door!" Kitten yelled.

"Fine. Don't see why I have to do it." she muttered.

"Hey Kuwabara." Ryu called when she answered the door. "Why am I not surprised to see you four here."

"Who's your friend?" Kitten asked, resisting hissing at the dog-demon and wolf.

"This is Koga." Kurama answered. "Our fifth team member."

Kina rested a hand on Kitten's arm. "A pleasure to meet you, I'm sure. And a special pleasure to see you three again." She said, smiling sweetly at Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei.

_It's like my mother always told me,_

_Nahnahnahnahnahnahnah_

_And if you ain't got nothing nice to say then don't say nothin!_

In the silence that followed everyone looked at one another.

_Fuck that shit bitch,_

_Suck a mother fuckin dick_

"I think I'm gonna like this guy." Yusuke said, as the person listening to the music walked down the hall.

He was wearing a black shirt with 'Dead Men Tell No Tales' written in red, letters like dripping blood, a pair of torn, faded jeans, and dirty, white sneakers. Short, red hair fell in front of his eyes and below his earlobes. His face was hidden in shadow. Another figure followed behind him.

The red head walked up to the group and pushed hair out of his face.

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Review please! 


	2. Tales of the Past

A few quick notes, 1) I edited this chapter, 2) I do not own any YYH characters, 3) this story is dedicated to my math teacher, Mr. Sonnie, I think up some of my best story plots in his class. (Just don't tell him.)

* * *

Chapter 2

The red head pushed hair out of their face and Risty stood before the group.

"What did you do to your hair?" Kitten yelled, grasping at what was left of Risty's once long hair.

Risty shrugged. "It was in my way."

"But why red?" she whined.

"I've got a different color picked out for each day of the tournament." she explained. "I just decided to get a head start."

The figure behind Risty giggled.

"No pun intended." Risty growled. "Why don't you come out and say 'hi' Rogue?"

The Georgian stepped out from the shadows. "Hi, Rogue."

"Ha ha." Risty muttered.

"Rogue? What happened to you?" Ryu asked, noticing the scratches on her arms and the marks on her neck.

"Well..." Risty and Rogue muttered together.

"You didn't! You practiced without me? I thought I was the only one you nearly killed!" Ryu yelled. "Didn't all those times you almost killed me mean anything to you?" she asked, starting to cry.

Risty quickly looked around for an escape. "Koga!" she cried happily, throwing her arms around the dog-demon. "And Kana!" she dropped to her knees and held the wolf.

Kana changed into a person and hugged Risty. Koga fell to his knees and hugged both girls.

"Aaya," he whispered, "we thought you were dead!"

"What happened?" Kana asked.

"Well, I wasn't dead when you left, but I knew I couldn't come back. About two years later I was killed, then Nefertiri said I needed to come back to finish something." Risty explained.

"Kurai no doubt." Koga muttered. "You were right about her." he pulled both girls to their feet. "She'd planted that bracelet and had meant for you to get blamed for it. After the 'incident' they put Kitten on trial, Kurai stepped up and said it hadn't been her, that it had been you."

"But the rest of us knew you had been on a special assignment that night, so fingers started pointing. All of them at Kurai. Everyone knew the two of you had never been very close or friendly. And after the Master started taking extra notice of you, well, Kurai got jealous." Kana added.

"Anyone with eyes could see she wanted you out of the picture. But we were too convinced she was our friend to believe what you were saying about her. You weren't the jealous type, but the idea of power, it changes people."

"Everything you said about Kurai was true. She was relaying everything we did to the Master. That's how Yume got caught talking to that human, she told us about him at night and Kurai," she choked, "Kurai told the Master everything. When you tried to kill her, we, we turned you in. She deserved everything you ever did to her, whether we saw it or not."

"We were wrong to doubt you." Koga apologized. "Can you forgive us?"

Risty hugged him. "I'm too glad you're alive to worry about that stuff." she hugged Kana. "Both of you."

"Well if you're glad to see us, wait until you see who else is here." Kana smiled.

"I did hear there were _two_ girl teams here. Are you telling me?"

"Yeah. Yume, Kit, Kagome, Sakura, Yuki, and Rissa."

"Rissa? She made it?"

"Yeah, she passed with flying colors. And all she did was talk about what a great teacher she had."

Risty leaned against the wall. "I wish I could've been there. I'm so proud of her."

"I'm sure she'll be glad to see you again. But there is on thing I should warn you about." Kana grabbed Risty's arm. "Sasuke is here. After Koga came back and told us you were dead, well, he went into mourning."

Risty snorted. "Good for him."

"Listen. Almost a year later he found a new girlfriend. A real big-chested blond. The kind you would expect him to go for. That lasted about three days. Then he went with another girl, that lasted about five minutes."

"What? Did she beat the crap out of him or something?"

"No, listen to this next part. Then he stayed single for over _seventeen _years. About six months ago he hooked up with Kit. He's here to cheer her on."

Risty's eyes widened as she looked at her old friend. "Kitten?"

"Yeah. Now here's the interesting part. Not too long ago, a rumor started up that you were alive. Well, Kurai started panicking and Sasuke started asking Kit if she really thought you could be alive. He asked _everyone_ what they thought. If they knew you, he asked if they thought you were alive. The rest of us didn't want to get our hopes up, but those two have been acting weird ever since that rumor started."

"So Sasuke wants to know if I'm alive. Why?"

"No one knows."

"What are you guys talking about?" Yusuke yelled. "And why didn't you two tell us you knew Risty?"

"Risty." Koga said, trying out the name. "Different."

"In my last life I was raised in the Hive. It was an organization for assassins. You would be trained, raised, given assignments, and occasionally given into the service of another client. Yume, Kitten, Kagame, Sakura, Hiroyuki, Kana, and I were room mates. We ate together, trained together, took classes together, spent our free time together, and bunked in the same room. Marissa came to the Hive when she was eight, went through preliminary training, and then got assigned a teacher, just like the rest of us. I was Marissa's teacher. Kitten was my teacher." Risty explained. "Koga is Kana's brother, so we were close with him and his friends too. Sasuke was one of Koga's friends, we were, close."

"I guess this means you don't know where they are?" Koga asked.

"No, I was hoping maybe you guys would."

"So, you were an assassin?" Hiei asked.

"Yeah, I still get equipment from the store."

"You still go there?" Kana asked.

"Yeah, I didn't change much physically. That's probably where the rumor I was alive came from, someone couldn't keep their mouth shut."

"Are you sure you know where we're going?" A voice down the hall whined.

"Yeah, I don't really think you do."

"Quiet!" A third voice commanded. "We're room 470, that means we're on the fourth floor."

"So how do you know we're going the right way?" The second voice asked.

"Because this is room 450! We're heading towards room 452, so we're going the right way!" the voice yelled.

"What room number is this?" Yusuke asked.

"466." Ryu answered.

"So they're going to have to pass us."

"Yeah."

Six young women and a young man came walking down the hall towards the group. The woman with the authoritative voice had the young man's arm around her shoulders and a room key in her hand stopped when she saw the group.

"Koga, Kana? What are you two doing here?" she asked.

"We're on Koenma's team." Koga answered.

"What has Spirit World come to when Lord Koenma has assassins fighting on his team. Gods. Aaya? Is that you?" she breathed.

"Hey Kit." Risty whispered.

"Oh gods, Aaya." she shrugged off the man's arm and hugged Risty.

Risty pushed away and looked at the others. "Hey guys."

* * *

Suspense! Review if you didn't review the original version! Thanx! 


	3. Meet the Gang

Chapter 3

The other girls ran up and hugged Risty.

"Aaya!" a blue haired girl with ears and a fish tail (like Juri the Dark Tournament announcer girl's) cried.

"Yume!" Risty hugged the water sprite, screaming happily.

"What are you doing here?" a brown haired girl with a quiver over her shoulder asked.

"I'm here with my team." she nodded at the girls standing in the hotel room door. "Kagame, this is Ryu, Kina, Rogue, and Kitten." she nodded at the guys. "This is Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei. Everyone, this is Yume, Kagame, Hiroyuki, Sakura, Marissa, and Kitten, and that's Sasuke."

The young man didn't respond to his introduction, he just stood farther down the hall in shock.

"What? Did you manage to lose what little manners you had over the past nineteen years?" Risty asked sharply.

Sasuke slightly nodded his head. "Please to meet you." he murmured, never taking his eyes off of Risty.

"So Koga and Kana get to know you're alive and we don't?" a blond girl wearing a red kimono with gold fans embroidered on it asked. "What kind of shit is that?"

"Yuki!" Risty scolded. "Watch your language! And they only got to know because they're on Koenma's team. Why are you guys here anyway?"

"The Master sent us to beat his rival's team." a tall, white haired elf answered. "And it gives us a chance to kill Kurai without getting in trouble. I'm sorry we didn't listen sooner."

"Chill, Sakura. I got the entire story about what happened from our canine friends over there." Risty said, nodding to the ignored Koga and Kana.

"Well, nice to see you alive." a shorter, dark skinned demon commented, her dark eyes cold beneath her black bangs. The only thing keeping her from being a normal human child was her long, whip-like tail and the assortment of piercings on her ears and eyebrows.

"Marissa, glad to hear you graduated." Risty said, fighting to keep her voice calm.

"I had a great teacher." Marissa whispered.

"So did I."

"For once in your existence could you just accept a compliment without trying to give credit to someone else?" she yelled. "Who cares if Kit taught you well, you were still a great teacher and for once just smile and say 'Thank you'!"

Risty smiled slightly. "Don't make me hug you." she threatened.

Marissa shut up quickly and hid behind Yume. "She threatened to hug me!"

"So your name's Kitten too?" Kitten was asking the new girl.

"Yeah, but for the sake of everyone involved you can just call me Faith." the other cat-demon told her.

"Faith?"

"I'm very religious, it's more of a mocking nickname but it'll make it easier to understand who's who."

"Alright, Faith."

"Does anyone else feel really out of place?" Yusuke asked.

"Yeah actually." Kuwabara answered.

"Don't worry about it." Yume told them. The four boys jumped, they hadn't heard the girl walk up. "We haven't seen Aaya, excuse me, Risty for almost nineteen years. Everyone has a lot of catching up to do."

"How is that supposed to make us feel better?" Yusuke asked.

"Because, in a few minutes either Faith or Yuki will notice you and they'll be over here in half a heart beat." she explained.

"Who are all of you?" Kurama asked.

"Assassins. Faith's a cat-demon, obviously, Kagame is a priestess, Sakura is an elf from Fraskra, the Forgotten Realm..."

"What's the Forgotten Realm?" Kuwabara asked.

"I've only heard of it in legends." Kurama began. "But that's where Ris's from. It's like Human World, or Demon World, or Spirit World, except no one has ever traveled from there to the outside, or the other way around. The homes of the elves and dwarves, as well as the sacred temples of the old gods is located there. Because no one has ever passed to or from that realm it is only remembered in stories and fairy tales. That's why it is called the 'Forgotten' Realm."

"Exactly." Yume nodded. "Now, Hiroyuki is our extra, her mother was a human, a geisha, she taught Yuki amazing things. She uses everything her mother taught her as a part of her fighting style. Everyone at the Hive calls her BBD, Beautiful But Deadly. Marissa is half chameleon and half we don't know, she's very sensitive about being half chameleon though so don't mention it. I'm..."

"What do you mean she's half chameleon! Aren't those little lizard things that change color?" Kuwabara asked.

"Hn. No you moron. Chameleons are a type of demon, they're normally about seven to ten feet tall and resemble lizards that walk around on their hind legs. They have the ability to take the shape of anyone, human or demon." Hiei explained.

"Whoa. Can she do that?" Yusuke asked. "Look like someone else?"

"No, she never tried. Chameleons normally work for human scumbags doing all of the dirty work. She doesn't like people knowing she's half chameleon so she doesn't try transforming." Yume scolded.

"And if I may ask, what are you?" Kurama asked.

"I'm a water sprite." she answered plainly. She turned around to show the boys the two small, semi-transparent, blue wings sprouting from her back. "They aren't useful for anything other than letting people know what I am, but give me another fifty years and then you'll see something worth gawking at." she told the boys after looking at their shocked expressions.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" Yuki came slowly walking over to Yume and the guys. "What are you five doing over here by yourselves?"

"Told you." Yume whispered to Yusuke.

"Risty!" a sharp voice yelled.

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Sorry, more suspense. I'll update it now, promise! 


	4. Prelude to Disaster

Two new chapters and a revision in one day, you people are so lucky.

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Chapter 4

"Shante!" Risty ran over to greet the fox-demon that had joined the group in the hallway. "What are you doing here? And why are you bleeding?"

"I had to fight Megumi to see who would be our fifth." Shante explained, holding a rag to her bleeding arm.

"If you're our fifth then who's our extra?" Risty whispered. "Never mind, I was hoping I wouldn't have to patch anyone up until after the first round at least!"

Risty turned Shante towards the hotel room. "You guys better get to your rooms and get settled, we have a big day tomorrow!"

"What's she talking about? The fighting doesn't start until the day after tomorrow." Kagame said.

"Maybe she knows something we don't." Sakura decided.

"Hey." Faith ran up to the four Spirit Detectives. "You're friends of theirs right? What room are you in?"

"We're in 490." Yusuke told her.

"Here," she handed him their room keys. "We'll trade rooms with you."

"Why?"

"Aaya, Risty, was a friend of ours, but people change. You're her friends now and there's no reason for us to have a room close to hers because we aren't really close anymore."

Yusuke stared blankly at her.

"Look, I don't do nice things for complete strangers everyday, and since neither of our groups are unpacked yet just say 'Thank you' and take the damn room!"

They two groups traded keys and the girls and Sasuke walked off down the hall.

"Weird." Kuwabara muttered.

**IN ROOM 466**

"I'm actually very happy you beat Megumi." Risty told Shante as she banged her arm. "I don't think I could stand being stuck here with her."

"Yeah well, everyone else is coming to watch, just so you know."

"Oh well, I'll live."

"Okay people." Kitten came strolling out of the bathroom. "There is a set of bunk beds in each room, so we each have to share a room, who wants..."

Everyone had run into a different room and grabbed a bunk, leaving Kitten standing in the middle of the living room. Risty and Rogue began quickly unpacking in their room, Ryu and Shante were putting fresh sheets on their beds, and Kina called 'Top bunk' as Kitten walked into the last room.

**IN THE BOYS' ROOM**

Kana was bunking with her brother, Hiei decided to sleep on the windowsill, and Kurama had walked into a room and locked the door, leaving Kuwabara to share a room with Yusuke.

"Aren't we a little old to be sleeping in bunk beds?" Yusuke complained as he unpacked his stuff.

"Come on Urameshi, you're only upset because I got the top bunk." Kuwabara teased.

"Go away."

**BACK IN THE GIRLS' ROOM**

"What do we want to do for the rest of the day?" Risty mused as the six girls sat in front of the T.V.

"Yeah, because there is nothing on T.V." Shante complained.

"Ryu, didn't you bring anything?" Kina asked.

"Well, I know Rogue brought some movies."

"Those are to watch with Keiko, Yukina, and Botan." Rogue explained. "The poor girls have never seen _The Princess Bride_ or _Grease._"

"Very sad." Kitten whispered.

"I did bring some home movies though." Ryu announced.

All of the girls but Risty yelled 'Yes!' while Risty attempted to sneak out the window.

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Next chapter: Home Movies! Yay! 


	5. Training Video

Okay, I know more of you are reading this so... REVIEW! But many thanks to randomwriter88 for being the only person to review.

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Chapter 5

"Oh no you don't!" Rogue grabbed Risty by the back of her shirt and hauled her back to the sofa. "You're watching these and you're gonna like it!"

Risty raised an eyebrow at her.

"Okay, you're gonna watch these even if you don't like it."

Someone knocked on the door. Kitten opened it up and admitted Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and a scowling Hiei.

"Where are Koga and Kana?" Risty asked.

"They went to see the other peoples." Kurama answered. "Did I just say 'peoples'?"

"Yes! You did! You said 'peoples'!" Risty yelled, then she danced around the room chanting: "You said 'peoples', you said 'peoples'" until Rogue smacked her over the head with a pillow.

"Since there's nothing better to do around here we thought we come over and see what you six were doing." Yusuke explained.

"Well, we were just about to sit down and watch some nice home movies." Ryu crooned, "Would you like to join us?"

"What kind of home movies?" Kurama asked suspiciously.

"Whatever I happened to grab on my way out the door this morning."

"Okay."

The four boys sat down and Ryu pulled a tape out of her bag. "Training."

"No, not training." Risty groaned.

"Shush." Ryu pushed in the tape and pressed play.

_Training: Day 1_

_A much younger Kurama, Risty, Rogue, and Kitten were standing in the middle of a field. _

_Risty scowled and glared at the camera. "You better have a damn good reason for bringing us out here at seven o'clock in the morning and you better have a damn good reason for having my camera." she snapped._

_Kurama hit her on the back of the head. "No swearing."_

_"And would it kill you smile every now in then?" Kitten asked._

_"No, but it might kill you."_

_"Chill Ris." Ryu's voice said. "Look at it this way, one day we could be sitting in a cheap hotel on an island in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do and we'll pull out this tape and sit around watching it for lack of anything else to do."_

"I hate it when you're right." Risty muttered.

"Shut up and watch the movie!" Ryu scolded.

_"So, what are we doing out here anyway?" Rogue asked in broken Japanese with a strong southern accent._

_"We are going to begin training."_

_"At seven o'clock on a Saturday? I don't think so."_

"Shows how little I knew."

_"I thought it would be a good idea if on a Saturday we came out here and beat the crap out of each other. You know, work out our frustrations."_

_"Okay then, I'll work out my frustrations..." Risty slowly advanced on the camera._

_The screen went black and yelling could be heard._

_"Ris? What are you doing? I'm sorry. Stop! Please!"_

_Training: Day 4_

_The screen again showed everyone when they were younger, but this time Ryu was also visible. _

_"I can't move." Kitten moaned from her place lying in the grass. "Rogue? Please help me up."_

_"I would if I could stand." she answered. "But because I can't... I guess you're SOL. Ow!"_

_Kurama had smacked her._

_"You guys definitely need this." Risty announced. "Once a week for four weeks and you can't even sit up straight."_

_"How come Kurama can stand?" Ryu groaned._

_Kurama shrugged and flopped down on the grass. "What are you working on now?"_

_Risty had her back to the group and was working on something. She held up a black leather vest with about fifty-some pockets in it. Then she held up a small bag and a black lump._

_"This is one pound of sand, and this is five pounds of lead. I'm putting them into this vest. It makes you stronger, builds up endurance, and your body becomes so used to the weight, that when you take it off, you move faster." Risty explained. She slipped a bag of sand into one of the pockets and sewed the pocket closed. "There." She slipped it over her head and pulled a t-shirt over top of it._

_"How much does that thing weigh?" Kitten asked._

_"It was about fifteen pounds, I just added another couple sand bags so... About twenty-three pounds."_

_"How long have you been wearing that thing!"_

_"I've been wearing it to school for the past two months, I don't wear it to train though."_

_"You're insane."_

_The screen went black._

"Do you still wear that thing?" Kitten asked.

"Yeah, it weighs about fifty pounds now, so do each of my swords."

"So you walk around with 150 pounds hanging off of you!"

"Pretty much."

_Training: Day 25_

_"Kurama!" Risty yelled. "I need to test my new swords!"_

_"New swords? Again?"_

_"Yeah! Your rose whip cut the first seven. So I forged new ones, they're much stronger this time!" she began jumping up and down. "Please?"_

_"Alright, just stop jumping."_

_Kitten ran between them. "Go ahead!"_

_Risty pulled a sword from her waist and her backpack strap and held them in an 'x' in front of her. Kurama slashed at her with his rose whip and it got wrapped around the sword in her left hand. Risty quickly brought her other sword down and cut right through Kurama's whip. Kurama stood staring in shock at the rose that lay cut in half on the grass as Risty spun around happily. _

_"It worked! I finally made two strong enough! I am awesome!"_

_"Risty, you're smiling." Rogue pointed out._

_Risty stopped spinning and covered her mouth with her hands._

_"Risty smiled, Risty smiled." Kitten started chanting._

_Risty glared at her, someone yelled 'Risty don't!" and the screen went black again._

_Training: Day 37_

_"I'm thinking of moving." Risty announced suddenly._

_"What!" everyone yelled._

_"Not like moving away, just, like, moving to the outside." _

_"Good!" Kurama turned a page in the book he was reading. "It's safer living with a bunch of humans than it is living with a bunch of demons."_

_"Definitely. But where are you gonna stay?" Rogue started reading over Kurama's shoulder._

_"I was hoping I could stay with one of you for a while, the problem with humans is they won't let a ten year old girl live by herself."_

_"You can stay with me!" Kitten said excitedly. "My mom won't mind! Honest!"_

_"Alright!" _

"We didn't get much stupider than that." Kitten said.

"Nope." Risty agreed.

"Except for that time..."

"No! No talking about that!" Kurama ordered.

"Don't worry, I'm sure it's on one of these tapes." Ryu added.

"No!"

_"This is gonna be great! We can share a room and get midnight snacks together, and make prank phone calls, and drive my mom crazy..." The whole time Kitten was talking Kurama kept nodding and agreeing with her. _

_Deciding he wasn't paying attention Risty added: "And sneak out in the middle of the night during the full moon and sacrifice foxes as an offering to pagan gods of death and destruction."_

_Kurama nodded and then looked up quickly. "WHAT!"_

_Kitten and Risty hit the ground laughing. "Kurama fell for it, Kurama fell for it."_

_"Ryu, make sure you're recording this, Risty's laughing again." Rogue ordered._

_"Oh, I'm getting it. Don't worry."_

_"Go to Hell."_

_Kurama smacked Risty on the back of the head. "No swearing!"_

_"Fuck off."_

_"No swearing damn it!"_

_Risty smacked Kurama on the back of the head. "No swearing." she said sweetly._

_Training: Day 50_

_The group was in the woods, this time a younger Dante and Kina were with them._

_Risty was standing in front of a huge eight-foot tall, black dragon. Its bat-like wings were folded against its back. Sprouting straight back from its head were two long, sharp, silver horns, and each of its toes ended in long, sharp claws. The dragon's long tail ended in small spikes and was folded neatly around its muscular hind legs. The dragon closed its pale blue eyes and yawned, revealing sharp, silver fangs and releasing a small flame._

_Kitten and Rogue were standing behind Kurama and Kina was standing behind Dante, the camera was shaking as even Ryu tried to stand as far from the creature as possible._

_"Come on Ryu, you're a dragon-demon, you shouldn't be scared." Dante teased, his voice shaking._

_"Yeah, but I've never actually seen a real dragon!" she snapped back._

_"Guys, this is Kagayakashii, you can just call him Kai." Risty placed her hands on either side of Kai's nose and rubbed her nose against it, softly crooning. "He's my little baby, yes he is. He's my good little boy." The dragon lightly tapped her with its nose._

_Noticing everyone was standing as far from Kai as possible Risty smiled at them. _

_"It's alright. He won't hurt you. He's only about two years old you know. He's probably more afraid of you than you are of him. I'm the only person he's ever really seen, and his mom and dad taught him to keep away from humans."_

_No one moved, but the camera did stop shaking._

_"There's a clan of dragons living in the woods near here. A very assorted bunch. His mother's a European dragon and his father's a Wyvern. I think he got the best characteristics of each. His dad's size, mother's coloration and forelimbs. He's taken me as his rider, which is a first for anyone of their clan. Then again, no one else has ever found out about their clan..." she looked back at everyone and saw they were still standing around uncomfortably._

_"He's not going to eat us?" Kitten asked suddenly._

_Kai pulled his head back and snorted, as if offended by the idea. I am not going to eat you. I doubt you taste nearly as good as chicken. And mother says humans are very bitter._

_Everyone took a step back as the deep voice resonated through the clearing._

_"W...Who said that?" Kitten stuttered. _

_I did._

_Everyone looked up at the dragon's head. His mouth hadn't opened, but there was no doubt that he had spoken._

_"Now, I'm going to quickly demonstrate my new swords." Risty said, drawing the swords seen on day 25. "This is a piece dragon-skin." she held up a flat object that resembled Kai's skin. "Every year on January first and June first the clan sheds their skin so they are able to grow. Dragon scales are one of the hardest objects in existence. If you tried to cut a dragon's hide with a diamond, the diamond would shatter." she placed the piece of skin on the ground and drove the sword in her left hand right through it. Everyone in the clearing gasped. _

_"Fílisk, Faery Light. Blessed by the head priest of Fí, the god of faeries. Strong enough to break through dragon scales." _

_She sheathed the sword and held up the one in her right hand. "You sure about this?" she asked._

_It won't hurt me. Kai assured her. _

_She brought the sword down and left a cut on Kai's right hip. "Demsklien, Demon Killer. Blessed by the head priest of Dems, the god of demons. Sharp enough to cut a dragon's scales. What do you think?"_

_The screen went black._

"You only had five days on there." Kurama pointed out.

"I cut out some stuff so it would fit on one tape." Ryu explained. "I think that was enough, don't you?"

"Yeah, what's next?" Risty began shuffling through Ryu's bag.

"How about this one?" Rogue held up a tape titled "Risty."

"Sure." Ryu pushed the tape in and pushed play.


	6. Sing, Sing a Song

I do not own 'We Carry On' it is owned by Tim McGraw, who I also do not own. I don't own 'Concrete Angel' nor do I own its owner, Martina McBride.

...And Martina in a pear tree. (Only WGAR listeners will get this joke.)

Nor do I own 'Travelin' Soldier' it is owned by the amazing Dixie Chicks (who I don't own)

* * *

Chapter 6

_Age 10_

_The T.V. screen showed the back of a bunch of people's heads. Voices were audible in the background and the orchestra was clearing its stuff off the stage at the front of the room._

_"Kina, can I chew on your fingernails?" Kitten asked somewhere off screen._

_"Why?"_

_"Because mine are chewed all the way down."_

_"I think you're more nervous than Ris." Rogue teased._

_"Shh." Ryu hissed. "Look." _

_The stage had been cleared off except for a microphone stand. A teacher stepped in front of the microphone and the auditorium became silent._

_"Now as you all know, students sing in front of our music teachers for the past month trying to be the best singer in the school.. This year's school idol is a transfer student. Boys and girl our school idol: Risty Ryokin."_

_There was a light applause from the students attending._

_Risty stepped onto the stage and music started playing. She held up her black microphone with the red dragon and began singing. Even at a young age, she had a strong, beautiful voice._

He hasn't seen a drop of rain in months it seems,

The rollin' river is nothing but a tricklin' stream.

The crops are dyin' in the harsh sunlight.

The dust on his tongue is dry.

The fatted calf is down to skin and bones.

We carry on.

Alone in the city and she's only seventeen.

The boy left her black and blue on the streets so mean.

Just twelve weeks along and she's got a life inside.

Says she's never ever felt so alive.

She walks in the shelter they say welcome home.

We carry on.

Beyond the picket fences and the oil wells,

The happy endings and the fairy tales,

Is the reality of shattered lives and broken dreams.

We carry on

When our lives come undone.

We carry on.

Cause there's promise in the morning sun.

We carry on.

As the dark surrenders to the dawn.

We were born to overcome.

We carry on.

It's the family that grieves for a lost loved one.

It's the soldier that won't leave the job is done.

It's the addict, trying to turn his life around.

It's picking yourself up off the ground, when you been knocked down.

We carry on.

When our lives come undone.

We carry on.

Cause there's promise in the morning sun.

We carry on.

As the dark surrenders to the dawn.

We were born to overcome.

We carry on.

He stands in the field cooled by the winds of change.

She smiles as her baby moves and it starts to rain.

_There was a pause after she finished singing, then everyone was on their feet applauding and screaming. _

_The screen went black._

_Age 11_

_The camera zoomed in on Risty with her head resting on her knees._

_"How ya feeling?" Ryu asked._

_"I've been better." Risty confessed. She looked up. "Get that fucking camera away from me."_

_Kurama smacked the back of her head. _

_"Where did you come from?" she yelled._

_"Over there." he pointed to the back of the room where the group normally sat._

_"Why are you over here?"_

_"I heard you swear."_

_"What? Do you have like supersonic hearing or something? Scram. Both of you." she rested her head back on her knees._

_"Are you at least going to sing something a little less depressing?" Ryu asked._

_"Depends on what you'd call 'depressing.' I'm singing something by Martina McBride, is that depressing?"_

_"Depends on the song."_

_The screen went black._

_The screen again showed the back of people's heads, this time it did not show the teacher making an announcement. Risty simply walked onto the stage and said: "Please understand this song and take its real meaning to heart."_

She walks to school with the lunch she packed.

Nobody knows what she's holdin' back.

Wearing the same dress she wore yesterday.

She hides the bruises with linen and lace.

The teacher wonders but she doesn't ask.

It's hard to see the pain behind the mask.

Bearing the burden of a secret storm.

Sometimes she wishes she was never born.

Through the wind, and the rain,

She stands hard as a stone,

In a world that she can't rise above.

But her dreams, giver her wings,

And she flies to a place where she's loved.

Concrete angel.

Somebody cries in the middle of the night.

The neighbors hear but they turn out the lights.

A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate.

When morning comes it'll be too late.

Through the wind, and the rain,

She stands hard as a stone,

In a world that she can't rise above.

But her dreams, giver her wings,

And she flies to a place where she's loved.

Concrete angel.

A statue stands in a shaded place.

An angel girl with an upturned face.

A name is written on the polished rock.

A broken heart that the world forgot.

Through the wind, and the rain,

She stands hard as a stone,

In a world that she can't rise above.

But her dreams, giver her wings,

And she flies to a place where she's loved.

Concrete angel.

_"Not a dry eye in the house." Kitten commented._

_"She said she wouldn't do a sad song." Ryu sniffed._

_"It's not sad, it's true." Rogue looked at her arms that had once been riddled with bruises._

Rogue sniffed and looked down at her arms. Even though they were covered with cuts, at least none of them had been intentional. She thought of the bruises and marks that had once covered her skin and thanked God that her mother had finally abandoned her.

Risty reached out a hand and touched Rogue's shoulder.

_Age 13_

_Risty, Kitten and Kina were sitting on the floor playing Black Jack while Dante paced anxiously and Rogue unwrapped a chocolate bar. Smelling the chocolate Risty jumped up from the game, spilling the deck across the floor, and grabbed the chocolate bar from Rogue, shoving the whole thing in her mouth._

_"Risty!" Rogue, Kitten, and Kina yelled. _

_"Sorry." she mumbled through a mouthful of chocolate._

_Kurama hit her on the back of the head. "Don't talk with your mouth full."_

_"Where do you come from? Every time I do something wrong you magically pop up and smack me! WHY?"_

_"If you're finished?" A teacher walked into the room. "Risty, please get ready, the rest of you... OUT!"_

_The screen went black._

_"Why do we always sit this far back?" Kitten asked. _

_"I don't know, it's tradition." Ryu answered._

_"Let's freak Ris out and sit somewhere else." Rogue suggested._

_"I don't think we should." Kina objected. "Risty has gotten better, but I believe if we pulled something like that she would try to kill us."_

_"Ris raided my closet again didn't she?" Kurama asked._

_"Yeah. Why?" Rogue asked._

_"I thought I recognized that suit! Why does she always raid my closet?"_

_Dante: "I don't have any dress clothes."_

_Rogue: "Me either."_

_Kitten: "I only have skirts and dresses."_

_Ryu: "My stuff doesn't fit her."_

_Kina: "All of my clothes are white."_

_Kurama sighed as the lights came on the stage._

"Why didn't you win when you were twelve?" Yusuke asked. "I'd think you were a shoe-in."

"I didn't enter when I was twelve."

"Why not?"

"I was going through a transitional period and couldn't think of anything suitable to sing."

"Oh."

_Risty took a deep breath and smiled at her audience._

Two days past eighteen,

He was waiting for the bus in his army greens,

Sat down in a little café there,

Gave his order to a girl, with a bow in her hair.

He's a little shy so she gives 'im a smile,

And he says would ya mind sitting down for a while,

And talkin' to me, I'm feelin' a little low.

She said I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go.

So they went down and, they sat on the pier.

He said I bet you got a boyfriend but I don't care.

I got no one, to send a letter to,

Would you mind if I sent one back here to you?

I cried, never gonna hold the hand of another guy.

Too young, for him they told her,

Waiting for the love of a travelin' soldier.

Our love will never end, 

Waiting for the soldier to come back again.

Never more to be alone, when the letter said a soldier's coming home.

So the letters came from an army camp,

In California then Vietnam.

He told her of his heart, he might be in love,

And all of the things he was so scared of.

He said when it's gettin kind of rough over here,

I think of that day sitting down at the pier,

Don't worry but I won't be able to write for a while.

I cried, never gonna hold the hand of another guy.

Too young, for him they told her,

Waiting for the love of a travelin' soldier.

Our love will never end, 

Waiting for the soldier to come back again.

Never more to be alone, when the letter said a soldier's coming home.

One Friday night at a football game,

The Lord's Prayer said and the Anthem sang,

A man said folks would you bow your heads, for a list of local, Vietnam dead.

Cryin' all alone, under the stands,

Was a piccolo player in the marching band,

And one name read, and nobody really cared.

But a pretty little girl, with a bow in her hair.

I cried, never gonna hold the hand of another guy.

Too young, for him they told her,

Waiting for the love of a travelin' soldier.

Our love will never end, 

Waiting for the soldier to come back again.

Never more to be alone, when the letter said a soldier's coming 

I cried, never gonna hold the hand of another guy.

Too young, for him they told her,

Waiting for the love of a travelin' soldier.

Our love will never end, 

Waiting for the soldier to, come back again.

Never more to be alone, when the letter said a soldier's coming home.

_"I think Ris just enjoys making people cry." Ryu sniffed, again crying._

_"She just likes touching people. That's all." Rogue whispered. "Ow!"_

_Kurama had hit Rogue. "Don't wipe your nose on your sleeve!"_

"The rest of this is more of our school concerts." Ryu announced. "I don't think we have to watch it."

"No." Everyone agreed.

"What's DT stand for?" Kitten asked.

"Defensive tackle." Risty quickly answered.

"This isn't football Risty, so why would my tape say 'Defensive Tackle'?"

"Well, no one said it was on a tape. Let's watch this one!" Risty held a tape in the air.

"I think that's the Dark Tournament." Ryu told Kitten.

"You taped that?" Kurama asked.

"Yeah, we even taped Risty swearing at you for losing to a dead guy."

The girls began laughing.

"An we taped Risty swearing at Hiei and Bui for almost blowing us up, and Risty swearing at Toguro for almost blowing us up, and Risty swearing at Sakyo for blowing up the stadium and almost blowing us up, and Risty swearing at Rogue for making us go cheer you on, and Risty swearing at you because you hit her for swearing, and Risty swearing at Hiei for using an attack he couldn't control and almost blowing us up, and Risty swearing at Toguro and Sakyo for making you guys go therefore making us go watch, and Risty swearing at me because we got drunk and I taped everyone singing bad karaoke, and Risty swearing at the birds for singing while she had a hangover, and Risty swearing at Kina for bringing alcohol, and Risty swearing at the people who make alcohol..."


End file.
